Word: russianize
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...Though indirect, this passage amounted to the most direct criticism Obama has offered in Moscow of his Russian hosts, President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who have consolidated both power and control over the press in recent years. As the U.S. State Department reported earlier this year, the Russian government has "restricted media freedom through direct ownership of media outlets, pressuring the owners of major media outlets to abstain from critical coverage and harassing and intimidating journalists into practicing self-censorship." Though Medvedev, who was handpicked by Putin, won the election last year with a reported...
...Sphere of influence" is a term of diplomatic art, which is often invoked by the Russian government and Western nations in discussing plans for a NATO expansion and the European Commission's Eastern Partnership effort. In his speech, Obama distinguished between Europe's efforts to grow its diplomatic relations with former Soviet bloc countries and Russia's efforts to keep significant influence over its neighboring nations. "America will never impose a security arrangement on another country. For any country to become a member of an organization like NATO, for example, a majority of its people must choose to [join]," Obama...
When Obama first entered the race for President, many Russians could not get past his skin color. Prior to his win, tabloids constantly referred to him as "the black-skinned candidate" and the Russian public, not overly concerned with political correctness, seemed happy with the label. But as Obama prepares to visit Moscow on Monday, there are bigger issues at hand, and Russians are starting to warm to the American President as they look beyond his pigmentation and turn their focus to his policies. (See pictures of Russia celebrating Victory...
...remember during the U.S. election campaigns, Russians always brought up the fact that Obama is black, and some newspapers linked it to his abilities as a President," says Galina Kozhevnikova, deputy director of the Moscow-based SOVA Center, which monitors racially motivated crime in Russia. According to Kozhevnikova, the spike in hate crimes toward black people living in Russia at the end of last year - including one incident in December in the southern province of Volgograd where a black student from Rhode Island survived a brutal stabbing - was related to the attention that the Russian press was giving Obama...
...doubt, when Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev meet in Moscow July 6-8, the two leaders will be testing the waters of a delicate friendship. The focus of their talks will be the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, an epic disarmament agreement that was formed during the Cold War and expires Dec. 5. If the treaty is renewed, Obama gets closer to reaching his goal of having a world without nuclear weapons. Russia is ready to make major reductions to its nuclear stockpile, but only if the U.S. gives up its plans for a missile-defense shield in Eastern Europe...